Land bank created for investors in agriculture development
The Government is rushing to set up a land bank for state-owned lands in an effort to attract investment for modern agriculture development and assist farmers to expand their cultivations.
This decision was taken at the agriculture subcommittee of the Presidential task force on economic revival and poverty eradication, the Agriculture Ministry said.
A new legislation will be introduced for the transfer of all state land to this land bank in order to disburse blocks of lands for development when and where necessary.
It is aimed at offering state lands to farmers and farmer organisations to expand cultivations or start agri farms with private sector investments in.
The land bank will also facilitate the process of providing lands for investors to implement mega agriculture projects right away, rather than having them to wait a long time for land acquisition.
“Sri Lanka has limited land resources but demand for agricultural produce and the need of modern technology with current farming practices is growing,” a senior official of the Ministry said.
At the agriculture subcommittee meeting, its chairman, Minister Chamal Rajapaksa emphasised the need of handing over unutilised lands owned by state institutions to traditional framers to continue and expand cultivations.
Investors should also be given land for modern agriculture development projects and making land available for economic activities is a beneficial move for farmer community, he added.
The Ministry has recommended 16 crops which could be grown locally including chilli, cowpea, green gram, black gram, peanuts, maize, turmeric, potato with the aim of becoming self sufficiency in food production completely halting agri product imports.
According to the Finance Ministry, special agriculture projects are being implemented with funding from international institutions.
Under the World Bank assistance, a sum of Rs. 10.8 billion has been allocated for agriculture modernisation projects in 12 districts and 48 farm clusters.
Another sum of Rs. 460 million has been set apart under a grant from the European Union for agricultural development projects.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has granted Rs. 17 billion for a smallholder agricultural partnership programme project where farmer clusters and private sector can jointly establish agricultural ventures.
Around 80 per cent of Sri Lanka’s land is owned by the Government and of that, about 30 per cent is forest cover.
In this context the proposed land bank will have to upgrade as the country’s digital land registry, economists said adding that it has to indicate forest cover on the comprehensive survey system.
It will increase Government’s efficiency in releasing the land among farmers, and investments will start coming in, they pointed out.